Hyderabad: Union minister and BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy said with doubts being raised on the future of Kaleshwaram project, KCR is ready for a judicial probe as they are alleging sabotage. The future of the project constructed with much fanfare is in doubt now and a case should be filed against the CM first.
Addressing the media in Delhi, he said, “The Medigadda project barrage is the lifeline for Kaleshwaram project and damage here will affect the lifting of water. The sinking of pillars in Medigadda barrage is a serious issue and raises doubts on their quality. The questions on quality are creating doubts on the viability of the project itself. It was built with the sole aim of looting public money. This anti gravity project design is faulty and was designed despite objections from engineers by KCR himself. He had claimed that there is no other project that can match it.”
The project has been turned into an ATM (any time money) for KCR family instead of being an ATW (any time water) leading to its absolute failure. A project built with thousands of crores has gone waste and should be considered a serious crime. To cover up the crime it was presented as a tourist spot carrying people to visit the site. Apart from this another major crime is it was built entirely by taking debt. The pillars from 15 to 21 have sunk now. The incident itself was reported to officials by the people, he said.
After the incident was reported the entire lifted water was let down. This project was supposed to lift 400 TMC water. KCR had himself made a powerpoint presentation in the assembly but the project has still not met the targets it was supposed to meet.
After being started on June21, 2019 in the last four years only 154 TMC water has been lifted. The water was filled in some reservoirs like Mallannasagar, Kondapochampalli and shown to people with photos of CM. Apart from serving as tourism centres they have not served irrigation purposes. The farmers have not benefitted from the project that was supposed to irrigate 18.25 lakh acres but only 57,000 acres has been irrigated, he said.
The design of Pranahita-Chevella was designed to have a lift at one place with water flowing with gravity. The project has been used to cheat the people by availing loans and is a historical blunder as its design is faulty. Cost of the project was jacked up from Rs 30,000 crores to Rs 1,30,000 crores. Water was sought to be lifted from 40 kms downstream and then lifted to the same level. This is not a lift irrigation project but where water is brought down and then lifted.
Explaining the fault in design, he said, “Water is lifted from Medigadda instead of Tummudihatti and then lifted to Yellampalli. It was earlier designed to lift water from Tummidihatti to Yellampalli. The only achievement is KCR’s farm house is successfully getting water from the Konda Pochampally reservoir. The CM should answer all these questions.”
Quality and maintenance are to be done regularly but even that is not being done by the government. Questions on the safety of the project, design, investigation done before the construction of the project are being raised. Engineers had filed cases on it and they are still pending. The doubts raised by them then have been proved right, Kishan Reddy said.
Finding fault with attempts being made to side track the probe, Kishan Reddy said, “A case should be filed against the CM and people have many doubts about the project. Why is KCR who waxed eloquent about the project silent now? A central team of experts is examining the project but the officials are not parting with required information. The dam safety team is trying to see that public money does not go waste and questions raised on the project are not being answered. Efforts are being made to mislead with false information. The project should be probed and KCR should resign realizing his folly.”
Answering queries on the funding of the project, he said, “We did extend loans through financial institutions as they were guaranteed by the State government but the onus for its design is with the State government.”
